Fair Lending Shake-Ups: CFPB Vacates Townstone Settlement, FHFA Ends GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on Junk Fees and New York's Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act — The Consumer Finance Podcast
The Latest on HUD's Disparate Impact Rule - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Title Insurance and Your Transaction
Law Brief®: Robert Wolf, Alexander Tiktin and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Continuing Foreclosure/Eviction Moratorium
Credit Eco to Go Podcast - Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Not a Normal Mortgage Crisis: How the Mortgage Industry Weathered the Pandemic
Recently, a complaint was filed against loanDepot.Com, LLC (“loanDepot”) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging violations of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)/Regulation Z loan originator compensation...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently delivered its Consumer Response Annual Report for 2024, as required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The report includes analyses of...more
Trusts are being used more often for financing mortgage loans, which can be an effective way to optimize asset management and minimize lender risk. Key Benefits of Using Trusts in Mortgage Loan Financing...more
What Happened? On May 13 and 14, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law three measures that amend or expand existing consumer financial protections for Georgians, and impact mortgage lending and servicing as follows....more
On May 28, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to terminate its redlining consent order against a New Jersey-based bank. The five-year order, entered in September 2022, resolved allegations that the banks violated...more
On May 14, 2025, Governor Brian Kemp signed Georgia House Bill 15 into law. House Bill 15, which will take effect on July 1, 2025, will implement several major changes to Georgia’s residential mortgage licensing law, the...more
On or around May 12, three industry groups submitted comment letters following the OMB’s request to identify rules and guidance to be deregulated. The letters submitted by industry groups highlighted several regulations for...more
On May 14, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 15 revising various banking and finance provisions. The bill revises procedures for incorporators of credit unions. It also addressed licensure requirements for money...more
On April 28, the governor of Tennessee signed into law HB 908 to amend the maximum effective interest rate for home loans originated in the state. The new law sets the rate at four percentage points above the average prime...more
In January 2025, the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation (the “OFR”) issued a guidance stating that assignees of residential mortgage loans, including certain passive trusts, were required to hold a Maryland mortgage...more
On April 17, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that the state has filed a lawsuit against a wholesale mortgage lender, alleging that the company engaged in a statewide scheme to mislead borrowers and inflate mortgage...more
Shortly after Mayer Brown published an update on legislation introduced to exempt passive trusts and other assignees of certain Maryland loans from licensing, Governor Wes Moore signed the legislation into law. The Maryland...more
Our Financial Services Group reviews the Maryland Secondary Market Stability Act, which overrides the Office of Financial Regulation’s requirement that passive trusts holding Maryland loans in residential mortgage-backed...more
In a highly anticipated and welcome development, on April 22, 2025, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed into law the Maryland Secondary Market Stability Act of 2025 (emergency measures HB 1516 and its companion SB 1026) with...more
In a prior Legal Update, we discussed the introduction of legislation in the Maryland General Assembly that would amend Maryland law to address guidance issued by the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation (“OFR”). That...more
In the previous 3 articles of this 4-part series I identified and explained three types of fatal flaws in the 2023 CRA rule: 1. The unreliable and sometimes misleading performance ratings based on unrealistic assessment...more
On March 31, the CFPB announced it published the 2024 HMDA Modified Loan Application Register data on the FFIEC’s HMDA Platform. The data, sourced from nearly 5,000 HMDA filers, included loan-level information to assess...more
On March 25, it was reported on social media that FHFA Director William Pulte signed an order terminating the Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs) previously covered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The SPCPs provided...more
On March 24, the OCC published its Mortgage Metrics Report for the fourth quarter of 2024. The Report analyzed the performance of first-lien residential mortgage loans serviced by seven national banks in the U.S. As of...more
In our latest roundup, Wells Fargo sues JPMorgan Chase, mortgage rates drop, and the life science RE market falters, and more!...more
With the recent developments at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), many mortgage lenders have been left wondering about the extent to which the CFPB will enforce federal laws governing the mortgage lending...more
Welcome to the latest edition of the Spectrum, covering hot-topic issues in the structured finance markets in the U.S. and UK. This edition features a close look at business development companies, an introduction to project...more
AT A GLANCE - In response to market concerns regarding licensing guidance for assignees of certain residential mortgage loans and installment loans released by the Maryland Office of Financial Regulation in January, that...more
On February 14, a divided Second Circuit panel upheld a 2016 jury verdict which found that a mortgage lender violated, among other laws, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) by engaging in “reverse redlining” when it...more
Financial institutions that purchase mortgage loans in Maryland, including securitization trusts and other secondary market purchasers, face a new requirement to obtain a state license. The Maryland Office of Financial...more